Worst Moments in Big Ten Football History #7: John Cooper's Record Against Michigan

FanHouse is counting down the ten best, ten worst, and ten weirdest moments in the history of Big Ten football.

Could a coach at Ohio State go 1-11 and still stay in the fans' good graces as long as the one win was against Michigan? Unless both programs take a ride on the porcelain Tilt-A-Whirl, we'll never know. Can a Buckeye coach go 11-1 (or at least only have one loss) and still find himself in the doghouse because the one loss was against the Wolverines? Ask John Cooper. He did that twice.

Cooper coached the Buckeyes from 1988 to 2000. He replaced Earle Bruce, who had the onerous task of following Woody Hayes. Bruce decamped to the University of Northern Iowa following a 6-4-1 season in 1987. His final game was a 23-20 win over the Wolverines in Ann Arbor. Bruce had already been fired before the game was played.

Enter Cooper, brought in from Arizona State to turn things around. Which he did. In 1988 his Buckeyes were 4-6-1 and lost to Michigan, 34-31. Things got a little better from there, as Coop made the Buckeyes a consistent eight-win team. That's pretty good in most places other than Columbus. The Michigan thing became a problem, though, as Coop went winless in his first five games against That School Up North. 1993, however, would prove to be a breakthrough season for Cooper.

That year his team went 10-1-1. Guess who the one loss was to. 28-0.

The following season Coop actually got over on the Wolverines, 22-6 in Columbus. WIth the Michigan monkey finally off his back, Coop went on to ... uh ... lose another three in a row to UM. His second victory against the Wolverines came in 1998, a year Michigan was suffering from a national title hangover.

And that's it. In 13 seasons, Cooper was 2-10-1 against his school's archrival. Even if you're coaching at South Dakota State, that sort of a record against your sworn enemy will lead to a U-Haul parked in your driveway. Back-to-back 6-6 and 8-4 seasons had some influence on Cooper's departure, but don't think that his inability to beat Michigan had nothing to do with his firing.

Once Cooper left, OSU brought in Jim Tressel. In his first seven seasons, Tressel has gone 6-1 versus Michigan. Clearly, the man knows where his bread gets buttered.